Pakistan's most wanted sectarian terrorist and patron-in-chief of outlawed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Riaz Basra and terrorist Shakeel alias Hamza were among four militants killed early Tuesday in a fierce gunbattle with residents and police at Kot Chaudhry Sher Muhammad Ghulvi, some 20 kilometres from Mailsi, police said.

Originally posted by ChannMahi:Basra????????????
in jhang? Riaz? Basra?
eh vi koi saada chacha tayea lagda ay.
(My cousin will have fun knowing that one of them is actually Mujahid of lashkare-jhangvi).

LAHORE: With the killing of Riaz Basra, a chapter in two-decade old secterian violence has come to an end, an official of an intelligence agency remarked.

The name of Riaz Basra, convicted of assassinating the Director General of the Iranian Cultural Centre in Lahore on December 19, 1990, was on a US list of "terrorists that live in or have lived in, have trained in, are headquartered in or financed from Afghanistan."

He had also been described in the US list as the "would be assassin" of deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif. Riaz Basra and his companions had launched Lashkar Jhangavi after the killing of their leader Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi on Feb 22, 1990.

Basra was known as Abdul Rehman, Ashraf Butt, Sajjad, Shah Jee, Pir Sahib, Bawa Jee, Choudhry Sahib, Asif and Haji Sahib. Belonging to a poor family, Basra had also contested election for the seat of National Assembly from Lahore on JUI (F) ticket and was voted 7,000 votes against Mian Nawaz Sharif and Asghar Khan.

Soon "an-eye-for-an-eye" pattern of sectarian killing started and it was feared the number of killings might escalate. A doctror for a doctor; a lawyer for a lawyer; a hakeem for a hakeem; a trader for a trader; a bookseller for a bookseller; a leader for a leader; an officer for an officer was a new phenomenon in Punjab, introduced during the last one decade. Everyone was confused as to what was happening and why was happening, what the motive was, and where it would lead.

Chronology: Riaz Basra, Salar-e-Azam (chief) of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a parallel group of Deobandi's Sunni militant organisation, Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, was convicted for assissinating Aqai Sadiq Ganji, Director General of the Iranian Cultural Centre in Lahore, in December 1990.

The trial was held by a special judge Aslam Shami under the 1975 Suppression of Terrorist Activities (Special Courts) Act and the judgement was announced on March 13, 1991. Basra escaped during the trial and was convicted in absentia.

He had become a terror not only for Shias, but also for every police officer attempting to nab him or his companions. The murder of Gujranwala SSP Ashraf Marth was one among his other terroristic acts.

Born at village Jhawarian in Tehsil Khushab, Sargodha, Basra got his primary education at Khurshid Pind Government Primary School. Afterwards, his father sent him to Hafiz Atta Muhammad for religious education.

At the age of 14, he was sent to Darul Uloom-e-Islamia, Kamran Block in Allama Iqbal Town by his brother-in-law late Maulana Muhammad Feroz. Here Basra memorised 15 chapters of the Holy Quran, under the guidance of Hafiz Din Muhammad.

Later, his brother-in-law sent him to Jamia Usmania in Wahdat Colony from where he finished his memorisation of the Holy Quran at the age of 20. Later, he started teaching Quran to children at their houses. For quite sometime, he also went to New Campus Staff Colony mosque to teach Quran.

Basra's transofmation from a religious teacher to the most-dreaded militant occured when he heard Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi addressing a religious gathering near Kot Lakhpat in 1985.

Fired by the speech, he contacted Muhtamim Madrassa Tajveedul Quran, Model Town More, Qari Khan Muhammad and joined SSP. On August 18, 1988, a Masjid-e-Shuhada meeting of SSP, chaired by Qari Khan Muhammad, elected an interim body. Basra was enlisted as a worker. Later, he became Lahore SSP secretary-general when the party was re-organised.

His name surfaced with a bang with Gunji's murder. Basra's subsequently was arrest and convicted, but later escaped from the police custody. He escalated sectarian violence.

He was accused of killing senior governmnet officials. The then Lahore SSP had confessed that the sectarian outfits had established strong links with the under-world and police officers were reluctant to raid their hide-outs. Basra was accused of supervising training for activists of his outfit. He was believed to have fought in Afghanistan in the '80s against Russians. Later, he joined the Sipah-e-Sahaba, but afterward set up his own organisation, the Laskar-e-Jhangvi (LJ) in 1994.

Some sources claimed that Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) and the Tehrik-e-Jafria Pakistan (TJP) created LJ and Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan (SMP) respectively, to have their millitant wings, independent of their political chapters.

Sources said the LJ always remained closely associated with the SSP, but the organisation always claimed that it had nothing to do with LJ. The TJP and the SSP became mainstream parties when they entered into an electoral alliance with PPP and PML-J and two ministers were taken from SSP when the PPP needed the SSP support to have the majority in the province. In return, it is believed, the then government freed the SSP detainees.

The LJ is more anti-Iran than anti-Shia. In January 1999 only, 17 Shias were killed in Karam Dad Qureshi, a village situated some 60-km from Multan, and the LJ owned the killings. The responsibilty for killing Ashraf Marth was also claimed by the same band. The dead officer had apprehended the killers of Agha Muhammad Ali Rahimi, Iran's cultural attache in Multan.

During January 1999, a bridge on the Lahore-Raiwind Road close to Mian Nawaz Sharif's residence was blown up shortly before his arrival. The LJ was reportedly involved in the incident. On April 05, 1999, police in Sargodha claimed to have killed Basra in an encounter. But, the testimony of the deadman and the forensic tests disapproved the police claim and the deceased was identified as someone else.

It may be mentioned that during the year 1997, the sectarian violence swept across the country, and the year was declared the bloodiest in the history of the country. Official figures put the death toll at 122, far greater than the previous year, while unofficial estimate claims that 170 people died in sectarian violnec in twelve months of the year 1997.

Similarly, reports show that since the military takeover on October 12, 1999, as many as 114 incidents of sectarian violence hd taken place in 33 cities, claiming 277 lives while leaving more than 274 seriously wounded.

From 1991 to the year 2000, the LJ had allegedly killed at least 480 people during carrying out sectarian crimes across the province and about 250 cases were lodged. During 1991,30 people were killed while 25 cases were registered. In the year 1992, at least 11 people were murdered and 10 cases were lodged.

In 1993 18 were killed and a dozen cases were registered, while during 1994, 39 were killed and 20 cases were registered by the police. At least 37 people were killed in 1995, while 22 cases were registered. In 1996 a horrible increase occurred in sectarian crimes as a result of which at least 361 people were killed and police lodged 32 cases.

About 122 people were killed in 66 incidents across the province in 1997, while 83 people fell prey to the sectarianism in 1998 and police registered 38 FIRs.

Realdeal, Demarco: you did not get my comment. There are some Basra Sikhs in India and I didn't know any Basras were also muslims.
If he was running around killing people, of course he deserves what happened to him.